


Terrifying Tales to Tell in the Darkness

by Saaron



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Bugs & Insects, F/F, Gen, Ghosthunting, Haunted Houses, Nagamas, Nagamas 2019, Rats
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:07:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22106806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saaron/pseuds/Saaron
Summary: Byleth follows Mercedes into the manor of one of her chilling tales. Both women will attempt to find and appease whatever might be hiding into that old, abandoned home.
Relationships: Mercedes von Martritz/My Unit | Byleth
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Terrifying Tales to Tell in the Darkness

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hardkourparcore](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hardkourparcore/gifts).



“… and in a fit of jealousy, her husband had her accused of witchcraft and executed in her very own bedroom for crimes she didn’t commit…”

Byleth shivered as Mercedes finished her tale. From what she had told her, they were standing right in front of the old manor where the woman of the story had lived… and died.

“Ever since, no one dares enter her home at night. It is said that we can still feel her anger lingering inside its very walls. The woman’s ghost seems to place a curse on anyone that enters the manor and unfairly kills them after a few days, as she was, two days after the accusations.”

Byleth stared at the manor’s front door. It was slightly open, and the strong winds of the day made it tremble menacingly.

“Afraid to enter, professor?” asked Mercedes with a chuckle.

Byleth slowly shook her head, her gaze still on the door as it was shutting and opening repeatedly. It was ajar for a few seconds when a pale figure appeared on the other side. The scared professor instinctively reached for the Sword of the Creator, ready to fight anything that would dash outside of this cursed building.

“It seems like you are… Don’t worry, professor,” said Mercedes, with a smile, “The goddess will protect us from anything that could be hiding in that house… Well except if what’s inside is not a ghost but a demonic beast!”

Byleth’s eyes widened slightly. She hadn’t even considered this eventuality. It was very much possible that a dangerous creature of tales told for centuries could be a demonic beast and not a ghost. Strangely enough, this thought reassured her. At least, she had fought and defeated those monsters in the past. She knew their strengths and weaknesses. Ghosts were a brand-new enemy to her, and she didn’t know how she had to fight or even react when seeing one… Somehow, her grip loosened around the sword. A weight was lifted off her shoulders as she felt her lungs letting all the air out in a reassured sigh.

Mercedes grabbed one of Byleth’s hands and started walking towards the front door.

“The sun is setting. The ghost should start manifesting soon! Let’s go, professor!”

As they walked towards the front door, Byleth asked the reason why there were only two of them on that mission.

“It’s true that I’m more used to doing this in groups. I used to do this with my church, after all…” she said, smiling melancholically. “I did ask Annette, Ashe and Alois to join us, but I think there must be a cold going around because none of them were available,” she added, chuckling.

The wood of the porch creaked under their steps, and the door slammed shut just as Mercedes was about to enter. She reached for the doorknob which didn’t seem to work, it stayed unmoving, as if someone was holding it on the other side. Mercedes started pushing the other using her shoulder, to no effect.

“It’s locked…” she whispered. Byleth was about to suggest they could find another way in, remembering that white figure she saw standing on that doorstep, when Mercedes exclaimed, “Never mind!” as the door finally unlocked. “These kinds of things happen in old houses like this one!”

She took a few steps inside the manor, grabbing Byleth’s hand once again, not letting it go.

The place was dark and dusty, but the novice ghost huntresses could see that it must have been an absolutely beautiful place in the past. The entrance was huge. Byleth looked up to see what was left of the roof and felt so tiny in comparison. It was standing far above a few flights of stairs leading to many hallways, which, in turn, lead to countless rooms. The light of the sun setting entered through the broken pieces of the roof and through a beautiful but, sadly, broken stained glass overlooking the main hall.

What was once probably a beautifully decorated manor was now littered with debris. Spiderwebs were covering the walls and the few pieces of furniture that had survived the passing of time and were left standing were still broken in parts.

Mercedes let go of Byleth’s hand and took a few careful steps on the stairs’ old, dirty carpet to approach the stained glass. She listened pensively to the muffled sound of her professor’s steps on the moss growing onto the floor. Byleth was headed towards what she assumed was the dining hall, as a fat rat stopped its course from one room to the other and looked at her in the eyes before running off into the darkness. The walls leading there were decrepit, the old wallpaper was rotting and curling up on itself. It had already lost all its colors.

As she was walking towards the room, spiders and their webs kept getting in her hair, proof that no one had been here in a while. As soon as she saw something moving behind the broken dining table, Byleth heard Mercedes’s gasping loudly from afar. She ran back to the main hall but bumped violently into her student. The two of them ended up on the floor, looking at each other worryingly.

“What is happening?” asked Byleth, jumping to her feet and holding out her hand for Mercedes to grab it.

“Well, I heard you gasping in fear and got worried…”

Byleth froze into place and her eyebrows twitched. She was the one who heard Mercedes gasping. She was sure she didn’t imagine it. After helping her get up, Byleth crossed her arms.

“Are you trying to scare me?”

“No, no, I promise! I genuinely heard you and you got me worried... Are  _ you _ trying to scare me?”

The two looked around them, silently. Could someone else be inside with them? The wind howling through the roof and the broken windows sounded like the whole manor was wailing, which sent shivers down Byleth’s spine and forced her to break the silence.

“Anything else you’d like to do here before we leave?”

Mercedes answered, raising her eyebrows.

“Oh, but we haven’t done any of the fun stuff yet!”

Mercedes walked back to the main hall. Night was slowly falling on the manor, and the darkness was now surrounding them. She raised her hand in front of herself and used the  _ fire _ spell to light up the night. Byleth picked up the pace to stay close to her; her student seemed to know what she was doing, and she felt safer the nearer she was to her.

“If we believe the stories, it’s in her room that the townspeople…” she paused respectfully. “I believe this is where we should be looking for her.”

Byleth doubted that they truly had to  _ look _ for the creature living there, she was even quite sure that it had found them already. If the stories were to be true, however, both of them were already as good as dead, so getting further into this old house wasn’t going to be any more dangerous than it already was. Shadows were dancing around the two, as if waiting for the right opportunity to suddenly jump on them. The two of them went upstairs, wood creaking beneath their feet. They looked at all these hallways, leading to all these doors. Any one of them could have been the ghost’s room.

“Well… It looks like we’ll have to split up again,” she said, looking straight at Byleth, “I’ll look into the right aisle of the manor, you’ll investigate the left one, alright?”

Byleth nodded and, before parting ways, Mercedes added:

“Please, just say a prayer to the goddess in every room, asking her to help this spirit see the light,” she closed her eyes, her fingers intertwined, “I know, ever since you left that void, that if she’d listen to anyone, it would be you.”

She opened her eyes again, smiled at her professor and turned around, ready to look into her side of the manor.

Byleth watched her disappear behind a wall, and the flame slowly died down as Mercedes got farther away from her. She could hear her friend opening one door after the other, each time spending some time inside. The professor opened her hand, palm towards the roof, and used the  _ fire _ spell too.

She slowly walked towards the first room, to discover an empty bathroom. She approached the old, grey bathtub covered in moss at the back of it. As she got closer, cockroaches scattered away from the tub, scared by her presence. In between the green plants growing on the surface, she could still see her reflection looking back at her. She felt shivers down her spine as what felt like a cold hand touched her bare arm.

She immediately turned around to see, thanks to the fire lightening up the room, a ripped piece of silk flying through the door. She ran out of the bathroom, just to see the cloth disappearing behind another door further down the hallway.

A strong wind started blowing and the door to the bathroom slammed behind her. Byleth, on her toes, carefully approached the room where the silk disappeared. The closer she was getting to it, the more the door crept open on its own, as if it was inviting her inside. She noticed her shadow growing longer and more threatening in front of her, before feeling Mercedes’s warm hand grabbing her arm.

“All the doors on the other side slammed shut. I guessed rejoining you was my best option.”

Byleth smiled at her with eyebrows angled upwards. She approached the open door and as she was about to peek inside, she heard the buzzing of a myriad of insects coming from inside, before feeling their wings and legs on her face. They all gathered around her face, as she was trying to cover it with her arms. She could feel their long and thin legs on her face, as well as their fur and antennas tickling her face. The  _ fire  _ spell disappeared, and the Sword of the Creator clanked onto the floor. The multitude of red and white moths quickly flew off her face as the light disappeared to rejoin around Mercedes’s fire. They started flying around her, even as she slowly moved the flames around, up and down, left and right.

“Don’t worry professor, they don’t seem to mean any harm.”

Even after they left for the flame, Byleth could still feel their legs crawling on her skin. Panicking, she quickly brushed off her face, her hair, her arms, with her hands as if she was still covered by the insects.

“Professor! Everything’s fine! Look, they’re all gathered here,” exclaimed Mercedes with a comforting smile.

Byleth slowly came back to her senses, sighed, still shaking. Mercedes placed her hand on her shoulder, squeezing it. She took the first steps inside the room, the moths following her wherever she went with that flame.

Byleth quickly got on her feet followed, grabbing her sword from the floor. Mercedes calmly placed her hand on her professor’s.

“Don’t,” she whispered, smiling.

Byleth looked around to see an empty room, which was tiny enough to be a little study. She could visualize the library, the desk, the chair and the little cabinet, in case the person using this place needed a drink. Green vines had crawled from the outside wall and entered through the window at the back of the room, covering the walls. Flowing around the window were ripped white silk curtains, flowing with the wind. They were covered here and there with red stains.

The wind started growing stronger, pushing all the moths out of the room and lighting off the  _ fire  _ spell. Soon, it grew even stronger and both ghost huntresses had a hard time staying where they stood. They covered their face with their hand as it seemed like their hair and their clothes were trying to pull them back out of the room, strongly pushed back by the wind. A ringing noise started piercing through their ears and Byleth ended up covering them, frowning her eyebrows.

Whatever was in that room, she had to fight it. She wasn’t letting it hurt her student. She reached for her sword once again, and Mercedes, her eyebrows frowned, said something firmly that Byleth took a few seconds to understand.

“Don’t, I said!”

The priestess took a few steps forward, fighting against the current of the wind and against the terrible noise in her ears. The curtains were flowing in her direction, almost as if they were extending, ready to grab her in their silk claws. As soon as she reached the center of the room, she fell to her knees in prayer, joining her hands. She lowered her head, resting it on her thumbs. Byleth tried to enter the room, but the wind was too strong for her and she could only grab onto the door to stay as close as possible to the scene. Mercedes stayed right where she was, unmoving while the curtains were getting dangerously close, surrounding her.

The wind slowly died down with Mercedes’s veil resting on her shoulders once again. The curtains, which previously appeared hostile, softly went back to the window right after brushing past the priestess in a sweet embrace. The ringing noise progressively disappeared, leaving an odd, empty feeling inside of the two women’s chests, a sensation that had started to be less common in Byleth’s life.

Mercedes turned to look at her professor, smiling.

“We can leave, now.”

Without asking questions, Byleth waited for her and both started walking towards the main hall. Before reaching the stairs, her mind was racing. Did she just meet a ghost for the first time? What did Mercedes do to calm it down like this? Is it gone forever? Was it really the woman from the tale? Suddenly, Byleth realized something and she raised an eyebrow.

“Wasn’t the woman in your story taken from her bedroom?”

“Yes, she was!” she gleefully answered.

“That room was too little to be a bedroom… Does it mean—”

Byleth stopped walking at the top of the stairs.

“That I invented this story?” she chuckled, “I’m surprised you didn’t come to that conclusion sooner, professor.”

Mercedes reached the bottom of the stairs and looked down to the ground.

“That’s one of the things I learned at the church. Old locations like this one, they end up having a life of their own. One of their aims was to help them go back to the Goddess.”

She turned to look back at Byleth, smiling.

“The little stories just add a little flavor to it, don’t you think?”

Byleth rejoined her, smiling. She nodded. They stayed silent for a few seconds.

“Mercedes, are there any other buildings like this one you need to explore?”

Mercedes’ smile got bigger and her eyes got a little teary.

“I was afraid you’d never ask!”

Both left the building, which was better and safer than when they entered at first, they hoped. Mercedes talked about how she just appeased what was inside the house for now, but that as soon as they were back at the monastery, she would send a letter to her church, asking them to come and do the right ceremonies to help the poor soul lost inside.

As the priestess was talking, Byleth looked back at the house. She could barely perceive its shape through the darkness. Two glowing eyes looking at them through a window sent shivers down her spine. She barely had the time to blink that the two shining, tiny orbs had disappeared, and a moth flew towards her, resting on her shoulder.

“Look at this, professor!” said Mercedes, with a smile, “it doesn’t seem to want to let you go!”

Both laughed, but Byleth’s was quite sour, as the insect felt much heavier on her shoulder than a creature its size should be…

**Author's Note:**

> This is my Nagamas gift to @hardkourparcore on twitter! This prompt about these two going ghosthunting got me SO hyped, I love ghost stories! You talked about sci-fi AUs in your prompts too, I wasn't sure if you'd have liked something more akin to this genre but I thought Mercedes's religious background and personality fitted pretty well some kind of "exorcism" ritual, so I went with this!  
> It tried to write something spooky, because... that's the magic of Nagamas, apparently!  
> Hope you'll enjoy your gift, happy holidays! :)
> 
> Thank you to samariumwriting (on Ao3) for proofreading my work!


End file.
